deep scratch repair

[WRBSTI]

I woke up this morning and noticed 2 fairly deep scratches on the front bumper of my blue 06 Sti this morning! Someone clearly backed into me and just left, so I`m angry and searching for advice about the best way to fix them. One scratch is about 3 inches long and the paint is gone, just black plastic. Is there anything I can buy from an autoparts store that will help? If I need to get this retouched professionally, how much would it cost? Thanks in advance for your help.

[sspeer]

There are some good articles in the learning section. I`ve repaired some deep scratches fairly well using those techniques. Still not perfect..and it drives me crazy, but I definitely notice it more than other people



Repainting is the only way to get 99-100%

[Accumulator]

Whenever I do these touchups myself I`m pretty disappointed with my results, but maybe you`ll do better than I do and/or be less particular about how they turn out.



Standard touchup: get some *good* touchup paint (I get mine from PAINTSCRATCH (http://www.paintscratch.com/) ). I get *MUCH* better results when I use a small artist`s brush (maybe size 00 or so) as opposed to a paper match or toothpick (let alone the brushes that come with touchup paints, don`t even try using those). You apply a little color/base coat and then fill the scratch the rest of the way with clear. Then consider wetsanding to level it with the surrounding paint. Then polish to remove the sanding scratches. There are some threads that explain this in detail. Your damage sounds pretty significant though, no way I`d try this if your car has metallic paint, it just won`t work out very well.



Better touchup: search for Brad B.`s thread about how he used an airbrush to do an incredibly great touchup on his silver Porsche. That is how to really do it right. Takes an airbrush (and air supply) and more skill than I believe *I* have, and I know my way around my Paasche brand airbrush ;) But plenty of people can do stuff that I can`t do, maybe you`re one of `em.



Best touchup for those of us lacking Brad`s skill: take it to a good paintshop and have a repair spotted in. I`m having this done right now on my MPV and I`ll be having it done soon on my M3- both vehicles have damage similar to yours. No way I can do as good a job as those guys will do so I just pay the bill. Not sure how much it`ll cost but it`s not a lot...consider that it doesn`t take hours on end to do such a job and shop rates vary from around $30/hr to $75/hr, plus a bit for materials. Honestly, IMO this is the no-brainer choice for most people, the challenge is in finding a decent shop to do the work.

[Stratous]

The body shop I work at would charge about 3 hours to remove, sand down, and re-finish the bumper. With materials you would be looking at about $200.



Either that or you could get an airbrush kit, and learn how to blend. You can order direct match paint pre-mixed from PPG...We get PPG paint through Keystone.

[Accumulator]

The body shop I work at would charge about 3 hours to remove, sand down, and re-finish the bumper. With materials you would be looking at about $200..



If I`m having an entire bumper cover reshot you bet I`d want it done off the car, but a little repair like this can just be spotted in.



I`d try to find a shop that`d just blend in the repair. One of the shops I patronize did a bumpercover repair spot-in for a friend of mine (she had my dad`s old car, silver `00 A6) for nothing while they were doing other work on it. They said it only took a few minutes so they were happy to do it as a favor. I kept an eye on it for years and the repair looked, and held up, fine. If a painter is experienced with spotting things in it`s not a big deal so it ought not cost too much.



But $200 to remove/refinish/reinstall a bumper cover doesn`t sound too bad either!